Hi! Wow, I'm so excited! This is like one of the most fun things I've done all summer—writing "It Happened at Hogwarts". I'm just writing this to say that this will be the tenth chapter! That means that I'm halfway there! I intend to make it twenty chapters, but maybe a few more…we'll see how the plot goes. After the halfway mark it just gets more and more interesting…Enjoy it!
Chapter 10 – Demelza's Loyalties
As Nick dressed and exited his dormitory the next morning, a wonderful sight was visible through the high windows of Ravenclaw tower. The first years, who had not seen the magnificent winter views from Ravenclaw Tower, were exclaiming un awe and pointing to the beautiful mountain scenery. It was true: the mountains and grounds were covered in a heavy blanket of snow, giving the appearance of being covered in whipped cream. In the distance, Nick could see Hagrid, the oversized half-giant gamekeeper and Care of Magical Creatures teacher hacking down the usual twelve gigantic Christmas trees for the Great Hall. As he hacked them, miniature-mountains of snow fell down as well, landing in large heaps on the ground.
Even as Nick walked down through the hallway, it was evident that the teachers had started their decorating for Christmas. Fake magical snow and frost were laying everywhere, sometimes making students slip and then fall with deafening cracks on the stone floors, and Mr. Filch had put Santa hats on the many suits of armor that lined the halls. As he entered the Great Hall for breakfast, Professor Flitwick was Conjuring brightly colored baubles out of his wand, and placing them, as though hanging from the ceiling with no string or other means to hold them up.
Nick thought fleetingly of joining Demelza at the Slytherin table, but decided against it as she was looking quite murderous. Instead, he sat with his house, next to Zoe, who was piling maple syrup on her pancakes.
"Hullo," she said gloomily, as he sat down. She looked very tired, as if she had been awake all night.
"Why so glum?"
"Arithmacy," she said shortly, "I was up ALL night studying, and I still don't understand it for my test today…"
"Vector's giving you the test today, the last day before the holidays?!"
"Uh-huh, it's horrible…"
She quickly stuffed pancakes into her mouth. Before Nick could offer her any help, however, the bell rang, signaling the start of the first class. Quickly gobbling up the last pieces of his toast, Nick scurried out of the packed Great Hall, narrowly missing knocking over an extremely disgruntled Amycus Carrow.
Throughout the day, several of the teachers showed great holiday spirit. During Charms, Professor Flitwick allowed the class to play games using some of the charms they had learned earlier that year. In Astronomy, Professor Sinistra, who was slightly distraught (possibly because Firenze, the handsome centaur had stopped collaborating classes with her) informed them that they could have a free period to study. Personally, Nick was very grateful that she had decided to give up studying Pluto's rather annoying personality.
Some of the teachers, however, worked them to the last minute. Professor McGonagall was no exception. During Transfiguration, they had progressed from Conjuring rats and tarantulas, and were now working on much more difficult animals and even small furniture. In Arithmacy as well, the only mention of Christmas was when Professor Vector had passed out a new complex formula chart, and absentmindedly wishing the class a "Merry Christmas". Nick could care less, however, since he had just received top marks on his Arithmacy test from the day before.
The most eventful class by far, came in the form of a bleak afternoon in the equally bleak and gloomy dungeons. It was the last class before the Christmas holidays, and it was clear to see that everyone was eager for the bell to ring on Professor Slughorn's time. Nick was sitting in his table in the center of the room, next to Sarah Wardell, Christina, and Daniel, who had all happily chosen seats next to Nick, as his Ian and Laura were his last two Potion partners.
The students had just settled in and were waiting for class to start (Professor Slughorn was nearly always late). Nick had already gotten his cauldron out and was preparing his potion ingredients. It was well known that Christina despised Potions, as she was wearing a distraught face, not unlike Professor Sinistra's.
Nick glanced over to the where the Slytherins were sitting, trying to find Demelza. She wasn't hard to find at all, sitting in the front row next to (to Nick's deepest disgust) Pansy Parkinson and Draco Malfoy, who had taken up the annoying habit of strutting around the school lately. There was a pattern to this, Nick had discussed nights ago with Laura. It seemed that whenever Voldemort was favoring Malfoy's parents, he was very prideful, but yet he became very sulky when they weren't in Voldemort's favor. Today, of course, they must be doing very well because Malfoy was talking in a loud voice to Demelza, Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle.
"…my Father of course is very happy about the school's new headmaster—" he was saying in pride. He seemed a lot more keen to talk about his dear old Death Eater father when the school was run by Voldemort anyway "—yeah, I always recommended Professor Snape in the first place, and with my father being big with the school—I have a lot of influence…"
Pansy Parkinson, as usual was regarding Malfoy with looks of deepest admiration, just as though he had slain a dragon, or something similar. To Nick's astonishment, however, Demelza was smiling too.
"Oh, Draco, you've got so many good connections…" she said, beaming at him.
Malfoy looked rather pleased with this. He puffed out his chest. "Well, yeah," he declared, "Snape's the best headmaster this school has ever seen, even though those sly little Mudbloods managed to get away from him, yeah that was a disappointment…but they'll be found soon, you mark my words, and then…oh…I can't wait to see what they'll do to them. Normally, they'd go to Azkaban, but since they were evading the law…they might even get…killed," he finished dramatically.
His Slytherin onlookers laughed. Even Demelza, though Nick was glad to see, her laugh sounded very forced.
"And did you hear about Longbottom?" shrieked Pansy, "oh, I hope they'll kill him too when they find him!"
"Oh no," Malfoy said importantly, "Professor Carrow told me personally that he was a special case… They say that they're both going to Cruciate him at the same time, and watch him shudder and snap and finally go insane like his dear old parents, still in St. Mungo's of course…idiots, brains addled forever since Auntie Bella got to them—"
It happened very fast. One moment Malfoy was gloating loudly to his Slytherin onlookers, and the next he was on the ground being violently pummeled into the stone floor. It was all a flash of blurry movement and light to Nick, but when it cleared, he could faintly see the outline of an enraged Seamus Finnigan attacking Malfoy, along with Daniel Honeycutt, who had been sitting behind him. Malfoy was screaming angrily at them, while thrashing to reach his wand. Seamus and Daniel, had perhaps forgotten their wands in their blinding rage, or perhaps they simply thought it would leave a more memorable mark on Malfoy to fight him with their bare hands. Beside him, Sarah gasped and Christina dropped her vial of frogspawn, which shattered on the floor.
In an instant, Crabbe and Goyle had come to Malfoy's aid they were working hard to pull Seamus off of a bloodied Malfoy. Either they had forgotten about their wands as well, or were too thick enough to cast any spells. Nick thought that the latter was more realistic. Pansy Parkinson was shrieking and immediately went running out of the class to fetch Professor Slughorn. Demelza had backed away slowly, trying not to catch the furious gazes of Nick and everyone else in the D.A. who was in the classroom.
"Shouldn't someone do something?" Sarah asked timidly.
"I don't think so," Nick said, "personally, I'm enjoying it."
Christina had completely forgotten her shattered vial of frogspawn, which was disintegrating her shoes. Instead, she was yelling things like, "Kill 'im, Seamus!" and "You got him, Dan!"
Suddenly, Seamus, who was sporting a bleeding lip, looked up menacingly at Demelza, who was retreating rather nervously back to the cold, stone wall.
"And you—" he croaked, "You're just as bad as him—" he gestured to Malfoy, who was lying unconscious on the ground, bleeding badly "—you filthy traitorous—"
But whatever insult Seamus had in store for Demelza, they didn't find out, because Crabbe suddenly snatched Seamus around the neck, and he couldn't breathe, let alone, fire insults. It was probably for the best, though, as Demelza had fallen against the dungeon wall, and had gone very white. Meanwhile, Goyle had Dan trapped in a headlock.
"What is the meaning of this!?" screamed a voice suddenly. Pansy had returned, Professor Slughorn in her wake, "Miss Parkinson tells me Finnigan and Malfoy have been--?"
His answer had obviously found, as he glanced Malfoy's bloodied, unconscious body, Dan trapped in Goyle's headlock, and Seamus going very pale, gasping for breath as Crabbe's beefy hand was clenched around his neck.
"Boys, boys release them immediately!" Slughorn bellowed, "I'll have no Muggle dueling in my class! Now, please…I don't want to have to report you to…you know what their punishments are like…but…well…could someone take Mr. Malfoy up to the Hospital Wing? Miss Parkinson? Thank you…" he trailed off.
He walked nervously to the front of the room, but before he could reach it, however, the door to his dungeon classroom burst open and Alecto Carrow stepped in, glaring at him.
"Good afternoon, Horace," she said horribly to Professor Slughorn.
"Er—yes, hello, Alecto," croaked Professor Slughorn nervously, "Well…um…I'm—er—kind of in the middle of a class right now—"
"Oh, you were, Horace, well, I was just passing by and heard a most disruptive commotion coming from this classroom, and came to investigate."
"Er—a commotion?" It was clear that Slughorn did not want to refer Dan and Seamus to the Carrows to be Cruciated. It was also well known among the students that he both loathed and was terrified of the Death Eaters.
Some of the students had nervously tried to move in the way of the fight scene, but Alecto spotted the trouble quickly. Her eyes darted from Malfoy's bloody, unconscious body to Seamus, who was massaging his neck, sporting many cuts, bruises and scrapes, and Dan, who had just been released from Goyle's headlock.
"Boys, boys…have we been fighting?" cackled Alecto, and then, once discovering the identity of the unconscious body, she grew very enraged, "and Lucius' son too…" She looked hideously angry, her pug-faced contorted, her nostrils flaring as she turned to Slughorn.
"Am I aware, Horace, that you have permitted fighting in your class?"
"Oh, no, never," Slughorn said quickly, "I wasn't here…still—er—preparing for class an—"
"Very well," Alecto continued, "and are you aware that being co-Head of Discipline in this school, that all rule-breaking is to be reported to me? Or am I to understand that you do not feel that this rule applies to you?"
"Oh no, of course not," Slughorn stuttered, "I was—er—just about to fetch your brother actually, to—er—report them…"
"I will take them from here," she snapped, "Finnigan! Honeycutt! You will follow me. Mr. Malfoy will be taken to the Hospital Wing—and of course—" she glanced at Crabbe and Goyle "—there will be no punishment for the selfless Slytherins who came loyally to the aid of their attacked friend."
She had almost left the room, Seamus and Dan at her heels, when she looked at Slughorn menacingly and added, "I would be careful, Horace, of whose parents' childrem are attacked in your class—you'll find that I am not as forgiving as others…" she finished dramatically and left.
Professor Slughorn looked horrible. He was twittering over and mumbling things under his breath. It took him about five solid minutes before he realized he had a class to teach, as everyone was looking up expectant at him.
"Honestly," he mumbled, "the woman doesn't think I can handle one small fight on my own…well…I'll…"
As he trailed off once more, Nick thought privately that it had been a little more than a small fight.
"Alright, then," Slughorn said at last, finally regaining his composure, "er—I was going to do something rather enjoyable before the holidays…but it hardly seems like the appropriate mood… So, then, we'd better open our textbooks to page one hundred and thirty-nine and try to brew the Fertilization Potion…"
Within moments, the class had returned to normal. Once Christina had noticed her frogspawn eating at her melting shoes, she screamed and quickly repaired her broken vial with a wave of her wand. But one could not call a normal Potions class "normal" in any way. In fact, just as Nick was cutting up his lacewing flies and bowtruckle twigs, a loud explosion sounded from the corner of the room where Jade Morse sat alone, and (moments ago) was stirring her potion. Seconds later, Professor Slughorn had emerged from the smoke carrying an unconscious Jade out of the flames. Upon announcing that she would have to stay in the hospital wing for several weeks, there was some cheering, as it was usually life-threatening to have her in any of your classes.
"That was really brave of Seamus and Dan to do that," Christina said admiringly, "Why, I might have helped them even, if it wasn't during class and all."
"Oooh, but they'll get in so much trouble," Sarah declared.
"Uh-huh," agreed Daniel DeLorenzo, "they'll get Cruciated, no doubt. Malfoy's father's a Death Eater. The Carrows will probably be really mad."
"Alecto sure was already," supplied Nick. It seemed like the Cruciatus Curse was the most likely punishment, if not Azkaban…or…well…Nick hated to think about it, but death. "You don't think they'll kill them, d'you reckon?"
"No," Christina said firmly, "they wouldn't want to spill magical blood and Seamus is pureblood, they'll have it on record and everything. And your potion's on fire, Daniel," she finished calmly.
Sure enough, Daniel's small pathetically clumpy substance in the bottom of his cauldron was aflame.
"Wha—oh!" Daniel quickly, "well, it's supposed to do that… step thirty-seven says—"
"That's because you're on the wrong page," Sarah said smartly, tapping Daniel's open book.
"Oh…oh, right," he said angrily and he extinguished the fire with the Torrent Charm. The Torrent Charm… Hadn't it only been days ago when Nick had worked on it with Demelza? Demelza. How could she have acted so much like…like…a Slytherin? Well, she was a Slytherin, of course, but Nick thought for sure that she was different. She had befriended students from other Houses, especially Gryffindors, which Slytherins typically did not do. Was she perhaps just pretending to befriend the other Slytherins to annoy the D.A. members into thinking that she wasn't the traitor? She certainly did seem to be sincerely embarrassed when Seamus had accused her. It was looking more and more like she could actually be the one who sold them out to the Carrows and Snape.
After Potions class had ended, Nick was officially on the Christmas holidays. It felt like an enormous weight of stress had been lifted from his shoulders. He would certainly enjoy the long break from his schoolwork, but had a strange sinking feeling that the workload would intensify after Christmas, as the looming giant, N.E.W.T testing, was approaching. Nick knew that he probably should have started studying by now, but felt like he had more pressing matters.
Him and the D.A. members were preparing a grand Christmas morning festivities for the Muggle-borns, who Nick hoped would be pleasantly surprised. They had bought the candy at Honeydukes for the younger children, and had chosen more personal gifts for the older students. They had also planned an enormous feast with Aberforth, who would send the food through Ariana's passageway with Neville. Neville had also been planning for weeks, and actual snowball fight within the Room of Requirement.
"Well, it will be quite simple," he was explaining to Nick and Laura in the armchairs of the Room of Requirement one night, "we just need to know what to ask the Room for, but you have to need it, that's the problem."
They had already ruled out Summoning the snow from outside, as it would look very suspicious and were toying around with the idea of possibly Conjuring it instead. The problem was, none of them were competent enough at Conjuring Spells to produce the desired amount of snow. Let alone Vanish it when they were finished.
"Oh, I don't think we'll need to worry about getting rid of it when we're finished," Neville explained, "we'll need to use the Room for just sitting and talking in the chairs again, so it'll get rid of the snow itself, once we're finished.
"I'VE GOT IT!" declared Laura suddenly, "we can produce water using the Augumenti Charm and then Transfigure it into snow…it'll just be a simple Switching Spell…and then perhaps we can find a spell to make it unmeltable…"
"Good idea," Neville agreed, "we'll do it on Christmas, how about? After—" he stopped suddenly, as the Christmas presents were a surprise for Laura as well.
"After what?" she asked suspiciously.
Nick woke up early the day before Christmas and went straight down to the Great Hall for breakfast. It was unusually less crowded, as it was the Christmas holidays, and Nick was pleased to see Demelza sitting alone at the Slytherin table, not surrounded by Malfoy and the others. Nick was alone at the Ravenclaw table, except for some third year girls, who were sitting at the front of the table. He was just spreading jam over his toast when someone landed in the seat next to him. It was Demelza.
She looked like she had sincerely debated joining him and looked as if she might leave any second. After five minutes of awkward silence, and Nick determinedly looking at his toast, she spoke.
"I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE!" she yelped loudly, making the third year girls turn around and look in their direction.
"Er—huh?" Nick said nervously. If Demelza had wanted his attention, she certainly had succeeded.
"I can't stand hanging around Malfoy and those other…" she trailed off, making a rather violent hand gesture.
"Well," Nick said coldly, "maybe if you wouldn't choose to hang around them so much, and stayed with your true friends, you wouldn't feel that way."
"You think I can hang around with the D.A.?" she cried, "Of course I can't! Not after what Seamus said, now they all think I'm the traitor!"
"Are you?"
"Of COURSE not!"
"Well, that's not what it looks like."
"I'm sorry if you see it that way, then."
"SEE it that way!" Nick yelled. It was uncharacteristic of him actually, usually he was quite cool and collected, "You didn't WANT people to see it that way? After you've been flocking around Malfoy and his little gang? Let me tell you something, Demelza, their parents are DEATH EATERS! Of course people aren't going to trust you, if those are your kind of friends!"
Demelza too, had been shocked that Nick could yell. "Well," she said hotly, "I-er—guess you're kind of right. I have been doing it just because I'm well, very angry at them. I've been their friends for six whole years, Nick! I've been your friend for six whole years, and I had no idea you would just turn on me like this all the sudden—"
"I never really did think you were the traitor though," Nick said quickly, hoping to prove that someone still did trust her a little bit, "and Laura—"
"Oh well, you'll even trust a Death Eater," Demelza said, rolling her eyes, "you've got this rather annoying ability of seeing—"
"—Good in everyone?" Nick finished, "yeah, so I've heard…"
"Well, yeah, it's true," Demelza replied.
"Why don't you come to the Room of Requirement tomorrow? It'd be a lot better than spending it with the Slytherins," said Nick, ignoring her last comment.
"No," Demelza said flatly, "they'd probably try to kill me if I took one step in there…"
"Oh, well, I don't think they'd do—"
"I think they would. Remember—you've got that—"
"YES! I KNOW, THANK YOU," Nick said loudly, "Anyway, Happy Christmas, and I hope you decide to come and join us. It'll be a lot of fun—we're planning a snowball fight, although I'm not sure it'll work out very well…"
"Wow," Demelza exclaimed, "good luck with that. Anyway, I'd better go…mail a Christmas letter to my parents, you know…"
And without another word, she rose and left, leaving Nick quite alone with his uneaten toast.